A live broadcast of the event provided by SpaceX showed that the mission commander, American billionaire Jared Isaacman, was the first to emerge from the capsule in his white and gray suit, attached to a metal structure called “Skywalker” located at the front of the capsule and made up of rods.
“This is amazing,” Isaacman said of the scene as he traveled about 700 kilometers above Earth, much higher than International Space Station Which is centered at an altitude of about 400 kilometers.
She was followed out of the vehicle by Sarah Gillis, who took steps to test the latest spacesuits.SpaceX“It is the first dedicated spacewalk, accomplishing one of the mission’s main objectives.
Each of them stayed outside the Dragon spacecraft for about ten minutes, and the operation ended one hour and 45 minutes after it began.
The other two crew members, former pilot Scott Poteet and fellow SpaceX employee Anna Menon, stayed inside the Dragon capsule to make sure everything went as planned, but they were also exposed to the vacuum of space when the hatch was opened, since the vehicle is not equipped with an airlock.
The four crew members’ suits were attached to the capsule by ropes through which oxygen reached them.
The Polaris Dawn mission was organized by American billionaire Jared Isaacman, 41, who is partly funding the trip for an undisclosed sum. The mission represents a new historic milestone in commercial space exploration.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson immediately congratulated SpaceX, calling the event “a huge step forward for the commercial space industry.”
New suits
The four crew members underwent intensive training for more than two years.
He carried out all the tours in outer space Since its inception in 1965, professional astronauts have been on board.
The process of walking around the International Space Station lasts for long hours, during which the astronauts carry out very technical tasks.
Despite everything, and given the altitude and conditions, the “risk” of the SpaceX exit was not zero, as former NASA chief Sean O’Keefe had previously said. “It is without a doubt more significant than anything the commercial sector has done so far,” he told AFP.
The four adventurers’ suits were inspired by those already used by SpaceX inside its vehicles, but were improved to be able to withstand extreme temperatures or improve the wearers’ ability to move.
It is also equipped with a camera, and the suit’s pressure, temperature and humidity information is displayed directly on the helmet.
SpaceX hopes to produce “millions” of them, enabling humans to become multiplanetary beings, according to its stated goal.
“One day, someone might wear a version of it on Mars,” Jared Isaacman, CEO of Shift4 Financial, said at a press conference in August, describing his participation in testing it as “a great honor.”
Two more tasks
The mission launched on Tuesday from Florida and will last for five days. Since its first day, the spacecraft has climbed to an altitude of 1,400 kilometers, the highest altitude reached by space flight crews since the Apollo lunar missions more than half a century ago.
The crew’s mission is not limited to space travel, but will also conduct about 36 scientific experiments, and test laser communication via satellite between the spacecraft and SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation, which provides internet from space.
The Polaris Dawn mission launches the Polaris program, announced two and a half years ago by Jared Isaacman, an advocate of the value of private investment in accelerating the conquest of the cosmos.
The program includes three missions. After a second similar mission, the third mission is supposed to witness the first manned flight of SpaceX’s huge Starship rocket, which is currently under development and is intended for trips to the moon and Mars.
